Warped Tour, post-show check-in

[rikibeth]

eternaleponine is doing a long review and has been for some hours now. I should do a long one but I am tired and I have work in the usual morning.

So I will hit some of the highlights.

1) My brother's house is really, REALLY close to the venue, which was extremely convenient.

2) Four-year-olds should NOT have miniature drum kits.

3) I am sure you all care SO much about what we wore -- cargo shorts for all of us, comfy sneakers, and T-shirts. I wore my Alkaline Trio shirt, eternaleponine wore her Amber Pacific shirt, and melovechocolate wore her American Idiot one.

4) $4 for a bottle of water is highway robbery. NOFX was selling $2 bottles at their tent. And there was a tanker truck of FREE water over by Main Stage Left. So we did not die of heat stress.

5) You would think, in the New York area, that they'd realize there were likely to be a lot of vegetarians in the crowd, and tailor their concession offerings. Nope.

6) Luna bars do not hold up as well in cargo pockets under severe heat conditions as one could wish. If anyone can suggest energy bars that are both yummy and not too meltable, I would love to hear about it.

7) Nobody was handing out free backpacks this year, although we were not the only ones still using last year's free bag from Fuse. This year Fuse had beach balls, which we did not get, although I have to say that beach balls are nicer than water bottles as a thing to throw in crowds. Did get a lot of free indie label sampler CDs, goodie bags from Warcon records, some stickers, and a Victory Records T-shirt. So did OK on the free swag.

8) melovechocolate now has sufficient patience to wait in line for a signing if she likes a band. I am proud of this.

9) The tiny bands working the line before gates opened were arguably more entertaining than the actual scheduled bands. We got there an hour before gates, and we did not lack for entertainment at ALL. We got quite a few of the tiny-band CDs. One's a real find. If a band called Trendy comes to your area, check them out.

10) Panera makes tasty, tasty lemonade.

11) Cars without air conditioning suck. They especially suck when traffic is bad on the LIE and you have to switch on the HEAT to make sure the car doesn't overheat. However, cars that get you there and back without breaking down do NOT suck, so all is well.

12) The reported high temp was 88. I think on a sea of black asphalt it was probably more like 98. That being the case, I'm REALLY glad we didn't go to Fitchburg on Wednesday, before the heat broke.

13) Would I do it again next year? Even with the problems with the venue? You damn betcha.